Nulla sul serio

I really enjoyed this great 30's screwball comedy which like so many of them hangs on a bizarre plot idea pitting smart man (so he thinks) against smarter woman - guess who always wins in the end. Here we get to see the actress with perhaps the best comedic timing of the whole era, Carole Lombard, in absolutely fizzing form throughout. For these battle of the sexes romps, there has to be a tough-minded, if dim-witted male for the female to run up against and in this occasion the patsy role falls to Fredric March, not an actor I'd much associated with comedic parts before but he's great here.

Previously the sap for the hilarious first scene hoax, March's previously high-ranking features writer finds himself demoted to almost literally the broom cupboard under the stairs with another great hyper-kinetic scene as everybody on the paper almost literally walks all over him while he's trying to write his copy.

To redeem himself in his testy editor's eye, he espies a potential feel-good story of a small-town girl's supposedly terminal illness and whisks her off to New York for a heart-tugging human interest tale of the innocent abroad seeing the sights and sounds of New York before she expires. The only problem is, her country bumpkin doctor has got his diagnosis wrong and there's nothing at all wrong with her. So what do you want the girl to do? Well, dragging along her usually inebriated doc for the ride, she more than happily takes up March on his offer, becoming a household celebrity in the Big Apple long before the accursed words "reality star" ever entered the language.

Of course it all ends in tears of sadness, rage and joy, pretty much in that order, with lots of laughs along the way. The most famous scene I guess, is when Lombard's Hazel Flagg character is presented to the great and good in New York society at a posh dinner and when asked for a few words, can only burp a reply before falling down dead drunk. I laughed at that but I also laughed at a great little sight gag when big bad city news-man March gets bitten on the leg by a rabid infant when he arrives in the backwater looking for his quarry. I also loved writer Ben Hecht's topical jokes about the presidents of the day - wouldn't he have a field day right now!

There are a couple of jarring moments however which at least remind us how society has progressed in the years ahead, like when the drunken doctor casually sings the racially offensive "D" word or when March actually socks Lombard on the jaw, but at least she gives it straight back to him.

On the whole, this is a great, breakneck comedy, undoubtedly one of the best of its kind and as a bonus it's in an early colour print process with some great shots of 30's New York in its pomp.

Absolutely hilarious screwball comedy. A hotshot newspaper reporter(Fredric March)tries to get in the good graces of his boss(Walter Connolly)by exploiting the "imminent" death of an ailing young woman(Carole Lombard). By way of newsprint the doomed young lady becomes the toast of New York City until her health situation is revealed as a hoax. Supporting cast includes: Frank Fay, Margaret Hamilton and Charles Winninger. Lombard is wonderful in the role of the ailing/doomed Hazel Flagg from Vermont. My favorite scene is when March is walking down the sidewalk and a small boy bolts through a gated fence to bite him on the back of the leg and scurry back to safety. This knee-slapping comedy is directed by William A. Wellman and its a crime not to watch.

"Nothing Sacred" has been remade in whole or part many times but no version comes close to the original 1937 screwball comedy starring Frederic March and Carole Lombard. Directed by William Wellman with a script by Ben Hecht, Nothing Sacred is more topical today than it was then. There's been a good deal written on this board about the political incorrectness of it: racism, drunkenness, physical abuse, stereotyping. It's true, there's something to offend everyone. Instead of judging everything by today's enlightened standards, I prefer to notice that yes, things were different in the past and then move on to the wonderful, witty script, the very modern topic, the great performances, the early, muted color, Lombard's outfits, the old airplane and the scenes of New York as it was in all its glory in the 1930s.

March is Wally Cook, a reporter in hot water for writing about the Sultan of Brunai who in reality is a regular Joe working in New York with a wife who identifies him while he's making pronouncements. Wally goes to Vermont to hunt down a story about a woman dying of radium poisoning and finds her in the person of Hazel Flagg (Lombard). Hazel has just gotten some very bad news from her doctor (Charles Winninger) - she's not dying. The diagnosis was a mistake. She had hopes of taking a trip out of Vermont that was offered to her and asks the doctor to keep the new diagnosis of health quiet. Soon after, she meets Wally, who wants to bring her to New York for a last fling at the expense of the paper, which will follow her until her last poisoned breath. Hazel agrees and takes the doctor with her. At first, she has a blast with only the occasional twinge of guilt. Then a German specialist is brought in and blows Hazel's scam all to hell.

One of the comments had it right - this story predates reality shows by something like 63 years. Hazel, like so many today, is an ersatz celebrity, famous for being famous. What will never change is milking a subject for profit until it's dry. Nothing Sacred has some hilarious scenes and great lines, including the big fight scene in the hotel when Wally tries to make Hazel seem ill by forcing her to fight with him in order to sweat and raise her pulse rate. The nightclub scene is a riot.

Lombard is beautiful and wears some stunning outfits and gowns, a gift to Hazel from the newspaper. She was a very adept actress with a wonderful sense of comedy. How sad that she is in a film about dying young and would do so five years later at the age of 34. She and March do a great job together - he's normally not known for his comedy but does well here. He approach to Wally is serious and he plays Wally's intensity and affection for Hazel for all it's worth. Connelly as his editor is fabulous, as is Winninger as the doctor who drinks his way through New York.

Nothing Sacred has been a musical, Hazel Flagg, and remade as Living it Up (with Jerry Lewis as Homer Flagg). Most recently, the general plot was reworked as Last Holiday. See the original in the screwball comedy genre which is, alas, no more.

A very witty comedy based in new york and the life of a reporter who seems to be coming up short. He can only get the job of writing obituaries in the paper and he is contanstantly trying to get back on his editors good side.It is a very good screwball comedy with romance as well as very good comedy through witty lines and funny actions by the characters.There's is a bit of a twist in the story when the main character realizes what is really going on but has to make a choice due to the fact he has fallen for the girl who is supposed to be his story.The musical part by Oscar Levant both mocks and celebrates the musical style that was being used during that time period.It is also possible to view in color because it was shot in technicolor so you can see what new york looked like back in the 30's which is pretty interesting.

The team of David O. Selznick producer, William Wellman director, and Fredric March leading man, after having had a big hit the year before with A Star Is Born, teamed up again to create one of the great screwball comedies of the Thirties in Nothing Sacred.

The inspiration for this film comes from the fertile imagination of Ben Hecht best known previously for co-authoring another newspaper classic, The Front Page. Hecht takes it a step further and while the Morning Post reports the news faster and better than its rivals, it doesn't create the news. Here the media is satirized for creating a celebrity.

Poor Carole Lombard as Hazel Flagg, country girl from rural Vermont who is misdiagnosed by her country doctor Charles Winninger as having incurable radiation poisoning. It's a small news item over the wire services.

But when hotshot reporter Fredric March gets a hold of it, he convinces his editor Walter Connolly to build up the story by bringing Lombard to New York and ballyhooing her into celebrity status. Lombard and Winninger by now know an error in diagnosis was made, but who can turn down an all expense paid trip to New York? The story just mushrooms until it gets away from any kind of control.

The difference sometimes between comedy and drama is often so slight as to be imperceptible. There's not much difference between Fredric March's character in Nothing Sacred and Kirk Douglas's in Ace in the Hole. Both are down on their luck newspaper people looking for a comeback and both exploit a story to their own ends, March comically and Douglas tragically. But the plots are more similar than one realizes.

Even today we still hunger for our celebrities some of whom are nothing but professional celebrities. The sad life of Anna Nicole Smith is proof of that.

When you think about Anna Nicole Smith though Nothing Sacred appears dated it actually has a very timeless message about the power of media to create and destroy.